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Solo Dining London

Best Restaurants for Solo Dining in London 2026

Solo Dining · London · 8 tables ranked · Updated May 2026

By Lena Sørensen, Editor-at-Large, Europe · Published · Updated

The queue forms on Dean Street at 11:42 — six people, three reading, one watching the marble counter behind the glass as the prep crew at Barrafina lays the morning anchovies into their oil and slices the jamón ibérico into the front fridge. At 11:58 the floor manager opens the door, takes the count, and seats the first six on the leftmost six counter stools facing the kitchen. The solo-dining London map starts here, in a queue at noon, in a room that has not taken a reservation since the original opened on Frith Street in 2007. The eight rooms below all share the structural choice — the counter rather than the table, the small plate rather than the multi-course tasting, the single-cover order pattern that fits inside £45 to £95 — and are ranked on four things the format actually requires: counter seating that does not put the diner behind a column or in the corner; a walk-in window for the no-reservation evening; an ordering format that does not penalise the single book; and a floor that recognises the returning solo diner by the second or third visit.

The ranking

1. Barrafina Dean Street — Spanish · Soho

26-27 Dean Street, W1D 3LL · £55 average per cover · Michelin star (held since 2013)

The Hart brothers' Dean Street original of the four-site Barrafina; the canonical London solo-counter walk-in. Queue at 11:45 for the noon open.

Sam and Eddie Hart opened the original Barrafina on Frith Street in 2007 and moved the Dean Street site (now the de facto flagship) in 2014; the Frith Street counter held one Michelin star from 2013 to 2017 and Dean Street has held it continuously since 2017. Executive chef Angel Zapata Martín runs a Spanish small-plates programme tuned to the counter format — the tortilla de patatas at £8, the pork-belly milhojas at £18, the prawn and piquillo croquetas at £9, the daily-changing fish-of-the-day. The 23-cover marble counter takes no reservations; the queue forms at 11:45 for the noon opening and at 17:30 for the 17:00 afternoon-into-evening service. The floor under general manager Crispín Somoza holds the leftmost two counter seats for returning regulars. The other three Barrafina sites (Adelaide Street, Coal Drops Yard, Borough Yards) run the same format.

2. Sabor — Spanish · Mayfair

35-37 Heddon Street, W1B 4BR · £65 average per cover · Michelin star (held since 2018)

Nieves Barragán Mohacho's Heddon Street counter; the working solo-counter alternative to Barrafina in Mayfair. Reserve a counter seat by name.

Nieves Barragán Mohacho opened Sabor on Heddon Street in 2017 after eleven years as head chef across the Barrafina sites; the room was awarded one Michelin star in 2018. The ground-floor 23-cover counter holds 6 seats off the reservation for walk-ins and books the other 17 through SevenRooms; the upstairs Asador grill room takes seven covers and serves a fixed-format suckling-pig-and-roast-octopus menu at £85 per cover. The kitchen runs Spanish small plates with a heavier focus on the Asturian and Galician end of the country than Barrafina's Catalan-Andalusian register — the chorizo-and-cabrales croquetas, the slow-cooked oxtail with manzanilla, the gambas al ajillo at £12. The counter format reads as the single-best Mayfair alternative to the Soho Barrafina queue. Reservations open via SevenRooms 28 days out.

3. Kiln Soho — Thai · Soho

58 Brewer Street, W1F 9TL · £35 average per cover · In the Michelin Guide Great Britain 2024

Ben Chapman's wood-fire Thai counter on Brewer Street; walk-in only, 15 counter seats facing the kitchen. Try it for a Tuesday early supper.

Ben Chapman (formerly of Som Saa) opened Kiln on Brewer Street in 2016 and the 15-cover ground-floor wood-fire counter remains the strongest Thai counter in central London. The kitchen runs a northern-Thai programme rooted in the wood-fire ovens that line the back wall — the clay-pot baked glass-noodles with brown crab, the smoked pork-skin laab with sticky rice, the Chiang Mai sausage. The counter is walk-in only; the queue forms at 17:30 for the 17:30 opening and again at 21:00 for the late-evening flip. The upstairs banquette tables take reservations through SevenRooms and run the same kitchen at a slightly slower service. The £35 average per cover is the most-honest Soho counter bill on this list and the wood-fire heat-and-smoke from the kitchen sits ten feet from the diner.

4. Brat — Modern Basque · Shoreditch

First Floor, 4 Redchurch Street, E1 6JL · £70 average per cover · Michelin star (held since 2019)

Tomos Parry's wood-fire Basque counter above Shoreditch; the strongest east-London solo room. Book a counter stool two weeks out.

Tomos Parry opened Brat on Redchurch Street in 2018 on the first floor above the Smoking Goat bar; the room was awarded one Michelin star in 2019 — the fastest Shoreditch star-from-opening. The kitchen runs a wood-fire Basque programme around the whole-turbot grilled over embers (the dish that defined the room), the wood-fire-grilled bread, the burnt cheesecake. The 14-cover counter facing the open wood-fire kitchen takes reservations through the house platform; the counter inventory sits softer than the table inventory at 60 days out and the same-week phone call will usually land a 19:00 counter seat. The kitchen will plate a half-portion of the turbot on request for the single cover at £55 versus the £95 whole-turbot share. The room is loud at 82 decibels at 20:00 but the counter sits inside the kitchen's ambient layer rather than against it.

5. Bao Soho — Taiwanese · Soho

53 Lexington Street, W1F 9AS · £28 average per cover · The Time Out London 100 2024

Erchen Chang and Shing Tat Chung's Lexington Street walk-in; the most-honest sub-£30 solo-cover in central London. Skip it for a tablecloth occasion.

Erchen Chang and Shing Tat Chung opened Bao Soho on Lexington Street in 2015 as the second Bao site after the original Bao stall at Netil Market in Hackney. The 38-cover ground-floor room with the 7-cover counter facing the open kitchen runs a Taiwanese xiaochi programme — the classic Bao with braised pork belly and pickled mustard greens, the fried-chicken Bao, the daikon and beef-shin soup. The kitchen plates the bao at the pass and the counter sits five feet from the steamer line; the visible service is the case for the seat. The walk-in window operates throughout the service with a 20-to-40-minute wait at the 19:00 peak; the no-reservation policy holds for the counter only (the floor tables take reservations through the house platform). Six other Bao sites (Fitzrovia, King's Cross, Borough, Marylebone, Shoreditch, Battersea) run the same format at the same price tier.

6. Bentley's Oyster Bar — British Seafood · Mayfair

11-15 Swallow Street, W1B 4DG · £75 average per cover · A London institution since 1916

Richard Corrigan's ground-floor Mayfair oyster counter; the classic London solo-seafood seat. Pencil it in for a working solo lunch.

Bentley's Oyster Bar opened on Swallow Street in 1916 and the room has run under Richard Corrigan's ownership since 2005. The ground-floor 14-cover marble counter facing the oyster bar is the canonical London solo-seafood seat — the Native Colchester No. 1 oyster at £4.50 each, the dressed Cornish crab at £24, the lobster bisque at £18, the Dover sole on the bone for the larger order at £42. The bar runs an extensive English sparkling and Champagne by-the-glass programme that suits the single cover. The walk-in window operates throughout the service; same-day phone bookings will usually land a counter seat for lunch or dinner. The Grill upstairs is the more formal sibling room; the oyster counter is the solo-cover seat.

7. Hoppers — Sri Lankan and South Indian · Soho

49 Frith Street, W1D 4SG · £32 average per cover · The Time Out Hot 100 2023

Karam Sethi's Frith Street Sri Lankan room; the working solo-supper room of central London Soho. Worth the walk-in queue at 18:00.

Karam Sethi opened Hoppers on Frith Street in 2015 as part of the JKS Restaurants group (Gymkhana, Trishna, Brigadiers). The 65-cover ground-floor room runs a Sri Lankan and South Indian programme around the hopper — the bowl-shaped fermented coconut-milk and rice-flour pancake that gives the room its name — and the dosa, the kothu, the bone-marrow varuval. The 12-cover counter facing the open kitchen at the back of the room is the solo-cover seat; the walk-in window opens at 17:00 and the queue is 20 to 30 minutes by 18:00 on a weekday. The £32 average per cover at the standard solo-cover order (one hopper, one curry, one short pour) is the most-honest sub-£35 Soho dinner on this list. Three other Hoppers sites (Marylebone, King's Cross, St Christopher's Place) run the same kitchen.

8. Sushi Tetsu — Edomae Sushi · Clerkenwell

12 Jerusalem Passage, EC1V 4JP · £140 omakase · In the Michelin Guide Great Britain 2024

Toru Takahashi's 7-cover Clerkenwell Edomae counter; the most-considered London sushi-counter solo seat. Reserve six weeks out for a Wednesday.

Toru Takahashi opened Sushi Tetsu on Jerusalem Passage in Clerkenwell in 2012 after seven years at Nobu Old Park Lane; the 7-cover counter runs three sittings a night and is the most-considered London sushi-counter format below the Roketsu and the Park Hyatt-hosted Endo at the Rotunda price tiers. The omakase at £140 runs eighteen pieces of nigiri across ninety minutes; the chef shapes each piece in front of the diner and announces the cut, the curing time and the source. The format is built around the solo cover or the two-cover booking — the room cannot accommodate a four-top — and the floor (the chef's wife, Harumi) recognises the returning solo diner from the first visit. Reservations open via the house phone line — there is no online booking — six weeks out for the Wednesday-to-Saturday inventory. The room is the closest thing in London to a Tokyo Ginza counter omakase.

Avoid for solo dining

The Ledbury — Notting Hill. Brett Graham's two-Michelin-star tasting room is one of the most-considered kitchens in Britain and the wrong room for a solo cover. The dining-room layout takes 2-tops and 4-tops along the banquette line with the kitchen behind a wall — the solo book sits at an isolated 2-top with the empty second seat and the meal runs three hours alone. The kitchen will not adjust the format; the tasting menu is the only available order. Save The Ledbury for the pair or the four-top.

Sketch (The Gallery) — Mayfair. The David Shrigley-decorated Gallery room on the ground floor of Mourad Mazouz's Sketch building is one of the most-photographed London dining spaces and the wrong room for a solo cover. The dining-room layout is open-room banquette seating in the round and the single book reads visibly as a single book in a room built around the pair; the floor will seat the solo cover at the bar with a different menu rather than the dining-room programme. Use the Lecture Room upstairs for the formal solo two-star dinner; use the Gallery for the pair.

34 Mayfair — Mayfair. The Caprice Holdings sister room to Scott's is the canonical pair-and-four-top Mayfair dining room and runs a programme around the sharing-cut Argentine beef. The solo cover is feasible but the room reads as a celebration space and the menu economics — the £180 shared chateaubriand for two as the signature — disadvantage the single book. Reserve the Scott's counter at the same group instead.

Reservation strategy for a London solo dinner

The walk-in counters (Barrafina, Kiln, Bao Soho) take no reservations and the working tactic is the queue at 11:45 for noon openings or 17:30 for evening openings; the wait is 0 to 15 minutes at the open and 20 to 40 minutes at the 19:30 peak. The Sabor counter holds 6 of the 23 counter seats off the reservation for walk-ins and the same queue-window tactic applies for those six. The Bentley's Oyster Bar counter is walk-in throughout the service and is the rare central-London counter that almost always has open seats inside ten minutes of arrival.

The reservation counters (Brat, Hoppers, Sushi Tetsu) take bookings at differing windows. Brat opens 60 days out on the house platform; the counter inventory sits softer than the table inventory and the same-week phone call will usually land a 19:00 counter seat. Hoppers takes counter bookings through the JKS Restaurants house platform at 28 days out. Sushi Tetsu is the longest-window booking at six weeks for the Wednesday-to-Saturday inventory and the booking is by phone only — there is no online reservation.

The single tactical move that lifts every counter outcome: tell the floor on arrival that the booking is solo and that the right-hand or left-hand end of the counter is the preferred seat. The end seats sit with one neighbour rather than two and have a clearer sight-line to the kitchen; the floor will allocate them by reservation timestamp by default but will move the booking on request. The end seats are the only counter format on this list that signals a solo book as deliberate rather than incidental.

Frequently asked

What is the best London restaurant for eating alone?

Barrafina Dean Street, the original Hart-brothers Spanish counter and the canonical London solo-counter walk-in. The 23-cover marble counter takes no reservations; the queue forms at 11:45 for the noon opening. The £55 average per cover at the four-plate order pattern is the most-considered Soho solo dinner.

Are London restaurants comfortable for solo diners?

Counter-format London rooms are; tasting-menu dining rooms are not. The eight rooms on this list are all counter-first by design. Avoid the major tasting-menu rooms — Connaught, Ledbury, Core, Sketch Lecture Room — the format is built around the pair or the four-top.

Which London restaurants take walk-ins?

Barrafina Dean Street is the canonical walk-in. Sabor holds 6 counter seats off the reservation for walk-ins. Kiln Soho is walk-in only for the 15-cover counter. Bao Soho runs a walk-in window for the seven counter seats.

What should I order at a London counter?

At Spanish counters, four to five small plates at £8 to £18 each, two cold and two hot, plus a glass or half-bottle of wine. At wood-fire counters, the half-portion of the headline share-format dish. At single-format counters (Sushi Tetsu, Hoppers), the tasting or the chef's-choice.

Is it cheaper to eat alone?

Per cover, marginally higher than a two-cover booking because the bottle of wine becomes by-the-glass at a 2.0 to 2.5 mark-up. Per evening, materially lower — the solo cover runs £45 to £95 at the rooms on this list versus £140 to £280 for the two-cover dinner at the same address.

Affiliate disclosure: RFK earns a commission on bookings made through partner platforms (Tock, Resy, SevenRooms) marked with a "Reserve" link. Sponsored listings are clearly marked with a Sponsored badge and are not eligible for editorial ranking. The eight rooms on this list were ranked editorially and no booking partner influenced the order.